CBI searches Dasari's house in Hyderabad

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday conducted searches at the residence and office of former minister of atate for coal Dasari Narayan Rao here over the coal scam.

CBI teams conducted simultaneous searches at the residence and the office of a media company owned by Rao.

The searches, which began in the morning after the CBI registered a FIR against Congress MP Naveen Jindal and Dasari, were continuing till afternoon.The CBI officials at Dasari's house in the posh Jubliee Hills refused to answer any queries by the media.

The agency is reportedly conducting simultaneous searches at 19 places including Delhi, Kolkatta and Hyderabad. The CBI also searched Jindal's home and offices. It was not clear if the CBI would question Dasari, a Telugu filmmaker-turned-politician. He was the union minister of state for coal from 2006 to 2009 when the alleged irregularities in the allocation of coal blocks took place.

Dasari was reportedly questioned by the CBI last year when it conducted searches here last year as part of its nationwide investigations. The FIR registered Tuesday is the 12th case booked by the agency in connection with the coal allocation scam.

The 66-year-old Dasari is a film producer and actor with many hits, including in Hindi, to his credit. During UPA-1, he was made a member of the Rajya Sabha and was inducted in the union ministry as a junior minister.